Watchdog is urged to intervene in Bumi battle

The Takeover Panel is under pressure to make a potentially decisive
intervention in the battle for control of Bumi ahead of Thursday’s showdown
meeting.

Any ruling at this week's EGM could decide whether the board and Indonesia’s Bakrie family, with whom Mr Rothschild created the coal mining group, have enough votes to see off the challenge from the financier.

In the run-up to the EGM to vote on Nat Rothschild’s proposed sacking of 12 of Bumi’s 14 directors, the City’s takeover regulator has been assailed by calls from the warring factions for rulings on at least three issues.

Any ruling could decide whether the board and Indonesia’s Bakrie family, with whom Mr Rothschild created the coal mining group, have enough votes to see off the challenge from the financier.

Lobbying by both the Bakries and Bumi’s advisers took on fresh import this weekend as it emerged that Rosan Roeslani, a 13pc shareholder, had found potential buyers for his stake.

The Panel ruled in December that Mr Roeslani could not vote his shares after outing him as a member of a shareholder concert party with the Bakries, so limiting their votes to 29.9pc.

If the Panel cleared any buyers from belonging to a concert party, they would hold a pivotal 13pc block of shares. The Panel would need to make its ruling by 11am on Tuesday – although there is an option of postponing the EGM.

Mr Rothschild insisted the Panel lacked the time to satisfy itself that any buyers were non-aligned investors and could challenge any ruling. “To do that in 48 hours would be extremely contentious and I think it’s highly unlikely,” he said.

Meanwhile, advisers to Bumi and the Bakries are disputing the number of shares Mr Rothschild and his cousin, Tom Daniel, can buy and also questioning whether Schroders, with a 4.2pc stake, is part of a concert party with them. Schroders backed Mr Rothschild the day he called the EGM.

Recent buying by Mr Daniel’s St James’s Master Fund is understood to have left him and Mr Rothschild with 25.2pc of the voting shares – boosted by the voting restrictions on the Bakries. However, the pair are currently free to take their economic stake up to 29.9pc.

The Panel’s separate inquiry into whether the Bakries or Mr Rothschild were responsible for failing to alert it to the Bakrie/Roeslani concert party is unlikely to conclude before the EGM.